unchainedmemoriesreactionpaper - Steimel 1 Robert Steimel...

Steimel 1 Robert Steimel October 30, 2007 HIST-215.01 – Social Forces That Shaped America Reaction Paper #3 Unchained Memories tells the story of a generation of freed slaves through their tales of events that happened in their lifetime. During the Great Depression, the American government paid for hundreds of people to travel around the South in order to interview as many freed slaves as they could, so that future generations could discover the stories of slavery. These stories varied in the treatment of slaves; not every slave was beaten and forced to sleep in the cold or split apart from their families. Delia Garlic hated slavery. During her interview, she stated that, “(t)hem days was hell.” (34) Ms. Garlic was separated from her siblings at a very young age and sold to the highest bidder at a slave auction in Richmond, Virginia. Ms. Garlic left a lasting image in the reader’s mind when she described babies being taken from their mothers’ breasts to be sold into slavery. Slavery destroyed families and killed the chance for multiple generations of African-Americans to succeed and better themselves and their families. It treated people as sub-human and beings that had no feelings. It was a truly disgusting practice that everyone involved should be ashamed of. The upward majority of slaves lived in inhuman conditions, but this was not always the case, as seen with Millie Williams on page 28. Very few slaves had conditions where they were “better off dan when we’s free”, as Millie did. Unlike Millie, Jenny Proctor’s owner treated her very poorly. Ms. Proctor told her interviewer about how she was beaten after eating a biscuit. While cleaning the house like her owner’s wife told her,

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